Good Luck to You, Leo Grande

Good Luck to You, Leo Grande gives a beautifully honest and raw look at intimacy with stellar performances by Emma Thompson and Daryl McCormack.

In a time when society has made women’s bodies into a thing of politics, shying away from the discussion of sex, it’s enlightening to watch a film that embraces it and beautifully portrays what it means to finally love yourself. The topic of the female orgasm, sexual pleasure, and self-love is rarely talked about in mainstream films without it resorting to some raunchy rom-com where it is seen as a joke. Thompson doesn’t miss a beat when it comes to Nancy’s resentment of the life she’s lived – one filled with obligation, but never satisfaction.

The star of 'Good Luck to You, Leo Grande' on going toe-to-toe (among other body parts) with Emma Thompson.

We traced them on pieces of paper and outlined the areas that we like, the areas that we don’t like. The writer, Katy Brand, is based in Germany, and in Germany, sex work is legal. But Emma as an actor is really inviting in terms of collaboration, and I felt really respected and kind of welcomed into that process. They just had a sense of self and an authority over what they did, and pride in what they did. I'm really grateful that this film shows there is that capacity in sex work. They recognized the value that they were offering to people. I’m glad that you brought up the vocation aspect of it. What was it like to take charge opposite a legend like Emma Thompson? Daryl McCormack hardly recognized Norwich, England, when he returned to the city for the first time after filming Good Luck to You, Leo Grande. “I walked back and it was out of lockdown and I found it the strangest thing,” he says. We both were setting off on this journey, and we both had apprehensions. She’s incredible at what she does.” The Irish actor chats with V.F. about working opposite a living legend, chatting with actual sex workers, and the nuances of intimacy. “I was like, ‘This is not how I remember Norwich.’ I remember it with no shops open.” Amid the height of the pandemic, McCormack shot the two-hander for Searchlight opposite Emma Thompson, who stuns as Nancy, a widow in search of sexual fulfillment trying to make up for lost time.

Older women's bodies, not to mention their sexuality, are something no one wants to think or talk about, least of all older women themselves.

Thompson, who is 63, has talked about this scene in interviews, stressing how difficult it was for her, a woman who has always been unhappy about her body, to bare all in this way. And after Leo arrives, she gets up the courage to slip into the bathroom to change into a slinky peignoir ensemble—having forgotten, of course, to remove the price tag under her armpit, as Leo later discovers, teasing her about it. She’s gorgeous to look at, not because she has no wrinkles (she does), but because her skin is so luminous. Hyde and Brand tackle all of these delicate ideas with agility and humor, and the repartee—including the arguments—between Nancy and Leo feel lived in, like rumpled sheets. The first visit, or at least as much as we see of it, ends with a kiss. And so she has hired a sex worker, a handsome charmer named Leo (Daryl McCormack, from Peaky Blinders), to see if he might help her find whatever has been missing, if it’s findable at all.

Nude rehearsals, deep trust and 'enthusiastic consent' were all part of the process for stars Emma Thompson and Daryl McCormack and director Sophie Hyde.

“We all felt that there was nothing in the film that we couldn’t do with each other,” said McCormack. “And I guess that was just down to the level of trust that we had in each other. So I made sure to check in in different ways, much like Leo does in the movie.” “I also said to them both, ‘Any day you can wake up and, even if you said yes [before], you can say no [now],’” she added. But we just felt like there was nothing in the film that we couldn’t do on our own.” But I do think it’s one of the best developments in the film industry.” I think Sophie just had a great eye for what they would look like, how their body language would change, and she just kept us really safe in all of that.” It was more about the essence or the feeling of the intimacy and less about the positions or anything like that. “So there was a whole section where they were laughing and tickling each other which we don’t use in the film.” It just felt like one of those days where all of the hard work had been done and we could just celebrate.” And Sophie just did such a great job of making that rehearsal fun and light and free.” Like ‘I love my feet because I run every day.’ So we ended up naked at the end of that workshop, and by then we were all very comfortable with each other and the two of them could go onto the set and own it.” “We had grown so close at that point that by the time those scenes came around, it really felt like it was a celebration because it marked the end of the film and all the work we had done,” said McCormack. “To get into those scenes and feel totally at ease and comfort with each other felt right, and it felt right for the characters as well.

Emma Thompson stars as a middle-aged widow trying to figure out whether sexual pleasure has passed her by in this generous drama debuting on Hulu.

So much of Good Luck to You, Leo Grande is about trying to reach the kind of comfort where you can laugh, and ask to change positions because of a cramp, and be open about whether or not you had an orgasm without a sense of stigma or failure. His reassuring certainty turns out to be as much of a front as Nancy’s chattiness — despite his confidence, not everyone in his life has embraced his calling. Even in a scenario in which she’s paying for a service, she apologizes for her age and lack of experience, as if she’s on a blind date with someone she believes to be out of her league. But while George Miller’s Three Thousand Years of Longing, which comes out at the tail end of summer, leans into exotification with a kamikaze commitment, Good Luck to You, Leo Grande attempts to see its two leads as the humans they are while also giving us glimpses of the types they might be tempted to see each other as. But it’s also, more radically, a case for sex work — not just as a profession owed the same protection and respect allotted to any other, but as a means for someone to be liberated in getting in touch with their own wants. The possibility that Leo could be doing his job by choice rather than due to coercion is something Nancy has trouble wrapping her head around, and doesn’t entirely want to anyway.

"Good Luck To You, Leo Grande" director Sophie Hyde and writer Katy Brand spoke to Newsweek about their new enlightening Hulu movie.

Emma Thompson and Daryl McCormack star in the movie Good Luck To You, Leo Grande, which is available to stream on Hulu now. This is the right way for the story to end'." "I think we've all kind of raised an eyebrow about the need for everyone to say how 'brave' it is. Brand said, "She is an artist, she put aside her personal concerns and trepidation and said, 'No, this is how the story has to end. Months later, the pandemic came along and allowed her time to finesse the script, and turn it into the story we see on screen today. It currently holds a 97 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, but audiences now have a chance to rate the movie for themselves as Good Luck To You, Leo Grande is available to watch on Hulu.

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Mind you, even with that objection, I was more than happy to stick with Good Luck to You, Leo Grande—I mean how many movies have middle-aged women getting it on with a hottie in a hotel room? I knew going in that, once sexually liberated, Nancy’s hair would get looser, her clothing less frumpy, her smile more easy, but the great Thompson never overplays it and frankly, it’s a joy to watch Nancy come into her own. He assures her he’s had sex with older women—way older than her—and that he likes it. But before that, Nancy warns Leo that she has never had an orgasm before and doesn’t expect to have one now. This is the premise of Sophie Hyde’s delightful—and sneakily radical—Good Luck to You, Leo Grande, where that now-retired schoolteacher, Nancy (Emma Thompson), decides to take matters into her own hands by hiring a male sex worker. And he’s impossibly smooth and confident, too, with a sneaky smile that says he knows exactly what he’s doing—in bed and out.

Film review: Emma Thompson and newcomer Daryl McCormack play off each other beautifully, as an unfulfilled widow and the sex worker she hires.

Which isn’t to say that “Good Luck to You, Leo Grande” isn’t funny, disarmingly honest or surpassingly sexy. Because “Good Luck to You, Leo Grande” takes place almost entirely in the same hotel room over the course of several weeks, it could easily feel stagy or monotonous or cramped. Which, of course, he is: McCormack plays Leo with such offhand spontaneity that the penny drops only gradually that he’s skillfully delivering a performance within a performance, as a man who is constantly crafting his persona for a living. Thompson fans - and really, by now, who isn’t? - will already be sold on “Good Luck to You, Leo Grande” by premise alone: Nancy is a character the actress feels born to inhabit with her signature blend of vulnerability and pragmatism. In “Good Luck to You, Leo Grande,” Emma Thompson plays Nancy Stokes, a widow and retired religion education teacher who has endured a lifetime of erotic unfulfillment. As the movie opens, Nancy is arriving at a featureless hotel room to meet the sex worker she has procured for the evening - a last-ditch attempt at finding out what she’s been missing for the past 35 years.

Screen Talk 386: Several notable new releases kick off a summer movie season in the streaming world. And maybe they belong there.

They also squeeze in some recent TV experiences with “Obi-Wan Kenobi” and “Barry.” No spoilers in this episode, though they don’t exactly see eye to eye on one of these shows. Last week saw the release of the Adam Sandler basketball drama “Hustle” on Netflix, proving that the feel-good sports movie isn’t exactly wide-release material. Summer movie season may have kicked off with a new “Doctor Strange” movie and “Top Gun: Maverick,” but many other new releases have faced a very different market.